ODiN

Next ODiN Meeting

The date of the next ODiN Meeting is Tuesday 13 March 2012, beginning at 13.00 and ending around 16.30.

The meeting will be held at Cass Business School, 106 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TZ.  Directions can be found here.

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ODiN Review - 10 January 2012

10 January 2012 - Paul Z Jackson and Nicky Maiden: The 2012 ODiNpic Games

 Another well-attended and highly interactive session explored how the theory and practice of games might be applied to everyday work -  or how life could be made more like games. And, in particular, how OD practitioners might import these ideas into their own practice.

Below is Paul's excellent move-by-move summary of what happened ...

Developing organisations: evolution and revolution

ODiN Members Valerie Garrow and Sharon Varney are Guest Editors of an important, highly topical collection of articles on ‘Developing organisations: evolution and revolution’. 

Hot off the press, this is the title of the Winter 2011 edition of AMED’s journal e-Organisations and People. 

You can read their Editorial online for free here.  See below for the cost of copies of the full journal.

Requests for OD-related Articles in 2012

ODiN members Julie Allan and Nick Wright wish to draw members' attention to opportunities to write for OD-related journals in the New Year, e-Organisations and People and Training Journal.

ODiN Review - 8 November 2011

Nick Wright: Organisational Cultural Dynamics

In a well-attended and interactive session, Nick Wright began by introducing World Vision's thinking and experience on the dynamics of organizational culture. He explained how the thinking embraced an ‘appreciative’ approach and set out the organisation’s four values that provide the centerpiece of WVUK’s approach. Members were then provided with the opportunity to consider how these perspectives and ideas could be of value to their own OD practice.

ODiN Review - 12 July 2011

Jonathan Wilson and Doug Shaw: Getting Engaged

The stakeholder engagement concept has become a common, though not universal, norm in the 21st Century following the 20th Century Tayloristic dogma that, "the sole purpose of a firm is to satisfy its shareholders."

At the same time, the implications of the idea and how people in organisations are supposed to identify and engage with their stakeholders seem to challenge many managers. Stakeholder engagement is an exercise in practical complexity.

New Book - Communities of Influence: improving healthcare through conversations and connections

A new book, has recently been co-authored by ODiN Members Alison Donaldson and Elizabeth Lank, together with their colleague Jane Maher.

According to Prof. Ralph Stacey, of the the University of Hertfordshire's Complexity Research Group, the book provides "A welcome antidote to the usual approaches to improving healthcare which take the form of endlessly changing organisational structures and relentless monitoring..."

Copies can be obtained from Amazon.

ODiN Review - 10 May 2011

Cliff Oswick: Metaphors, Ways of Thinking and Organizational Intervention

In an interactive and challenging session, Cliff Oswick asked members to consider metaphors as ways of thinking, and to explore their role in OD and processes of planned organizational change.

By way of a presentation (copy attached) and open-forum discussion, he then explored how metaphors frame, facilitate and impede conventional change initiatives.

The session concluded with table-group discussions about the practical implications of using metaphors in the planning and implementation of change programmes. And about how these might be used to shift the patterns of thought and action in organizations.

 

Workshop - "Moving Writing"

The fifth annual collaborative writing workshop will take place on Monday 16 May 2011 at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton.

Full details of this year’s event, including booking and location information, entitled Moving Writing can be found here.

AMED Workshop - New Skills in Changing Times for Educators and Developers

on Friday 13 May 2011, from 12pm to 3:45pm

at the Roots and Shoots Charity, Walnut Tree Walk, London SE11 6DN

with Paul Z Jackson

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Explore the skills that matter more and those that will be left behind as leaders in organisations take a fresh look at what’s needed in a complex, stressed national and international economy.

ODiN Review - 8 March 2011

Julie Allan: Is that wise?

For our March 2011 session we had to move away temporarily from our usual 'base' at Cass Business School. As on previous occasions, we met instead at the University of London's Hughes Parry Hall.

To begin the conversation, Julie began by offering a short tour based on the psychology of wisdom. This included thought starters on change agent ‘tasks’, honesty and the interplay of planfulness, structure and emergence. A copy of her presentation slides (produced by herself and business partner, Kirsten Irving) is included here.